I know the Transformers: The Animated movie was made in the 80's, a time of sex, fun, and freedom.

G1 Galvatron's arm cannon resembles a penis in both form and function. Was it meant to be a phallic symbol?

Is it possible that Hasbro was secretly trying to market to girls, just as Filmation and Mattel were trying to draw in girls by introducing She-ra in The Secret of the Sword the year prior to the release of the Transformers animated movie?

You can think that, and that's fine, but you're cutting yourself off to a lot of fun stuff.

The '86 characters in the movie seem better as they got more screen time in 86 minutes than the enitre cast of the '84 - '85 seasons, so benefited from some characterisation. Plus, everyone else had been killed off and Hasbro wanted to push the new guys to sell toys.

I think S3-4 of the US cartoon are generally better than the first 2 seasons.

The "Call of the Primitives" shows that Unicron was created by a small frog-like creature. This implies that the Unicronian Decepticons are probably not as well engineered. Galvatron did not get fitted with a proper helmet, causing the plasma to seep in and make him crazy. Megatron was not effected when all the Decepticons fell into lava at the end of "Heavy Metal War." Shockwave even said in "Countdown to Extinction" that Megatron was indestructible.

In "Webworld" Motormaster, Swindle, and Laserbeak threatened Cyclonus to his face that if he did not fix Galvatron they would get rid of all the Unicronian Decepticons, like they're were nothing. Motormaster even smiled at Cyclonus when he said this, like he was nothing to him.

...Megatron wasn't that indestructible, as the events of TF:TM bore out

Haven't seen 'Webworld' in quite a while, but my understanding was that Cyclonus would be facing a rebellion from the rank and file Decepticons, unless they sort out Glavatron's mental health issues. Whilst Megatron did indeed survive a dunking in lava in HMW, this wasn't the same as the plasma bath Galvatron had on Thrull - The Rebirth also showed how dangerous plasma energy is to Transformers, so the comparison cannot be drawn.

As for COP, are you assuming because of the cartoon's take on Unicron being built by the ape-like Primacon that Cyclonus, Scourge and Galvatron are somehow weaker? If so, that's fine, but just opinion...

For an alternate take, you could refer to the comics and the characters own Universe bios that basically state that the 3 of them are tough and the power they derive from Unicron essentially augments their strength and endurance. Whilst not unbeatable, they are very much tough nuts to crack.

Whatever the personal preference of a toy or character, I thought it was a given that unicorn three are more powerful than the deceptions that came before though, right? Galveston in particular looked to be Megatron xl in toy and story description.

For example, Bruticus is probably the most remade Transformer ever. And yet, G1 Bruticus is still considered simply the best.

I would say 50% of the original Transformers toys are good the rest are crap, due to being so fragile if you look at them the wrong way they break and very limited movement and possibly. Some of them can only transform (the Trottlebots and the Battlechargers) and even then it's so simple that you can be blind and still figure them out.

Now I don't like overly complex transformations either (like the Alternators) most the current Generations have found that sweet spot between transformations and having good possibility.